HHRS Middle School Team Attends Odyssey of the Mind Competition

HHRS’ Middle School Odyssey of the Mind team presented at the regional level competition on March 11th at the Pennington School in Pennington, NJ.

The team is made up of 8th grader Charlotte Basile and 7th graders Benson Chiles, Jack Crowley, Jack Denvir, Tobin Mytnick, Maeve Sherlock and Owen Thurman.

In October, the team was given a choice of 5 long term problems to solve. They were given rubrics for each problem and chose one to work through as a team. This team chose Problem 2, which is always a technical problem. It was called Odd-A-Bot and involved building a robot that could perform four human movements that it would learn by watching a human perform first. As if that wasn't a hard enough task, they were also required to write a humorous skit that involved a family bringing home this robot, showing how it learns the four movements, and then how it reinterprets the movements into new movements. For example, the robot learned to sweep by watching Charlotte sweep up some crumbs after the family ate dinner, and then used the sweeping motion later in the skit to play the wind chimes. They also had to make a set to show the home environment and the family had to have members from at least two generations. The performance was amazing and the robot performed all four human movements. Coach Kathleen Boylan and the many parents who traveled all the way to The Pennington to watch the competition were so proud of the team!

Five members of the team were also required to compete in a "Spontaneous" problem which requires members to solve a quick problem after being given a few minutes brainstorm. The team received 91 out of a possible 105 points in this category for their creative, spontaneous answers.

HHRS’ team came in fourth place which means they do not move onto the State tournament this year, but they are excited try again next year!

Thank you to the Henry Hudson Tri-District Education Foundation for the funding that made HHRS' Odyssey of the Mind team possible.